Chapter One

"You're joking, right?" Lorne asked incredulously, leaning on the back of the chair in the conference room.

"I wish I was, Major," Sheppard replied, sharing a look with Doctor Weir.

The Major dropped his head with a groan. He hadn't even had a chance to change out of his jeans and paint-covered red flannel. He knew he shouldn't have trusted his CO. Every time the Colonel even hinted at something like downtime for his team all hell broke loose. At least this wasn't as bad as he'd feared when he was first called in to the meeting room. Getting over it, he began to consider.

"Lieutenant Shingleton is up for it, but then he always is when it comes to anything archeological," Lorne finally told them. "Lieutenant Keane…eh, he'll be disappointed, but I'm pretty sure he didn't have any plans today, anyway. Lieutenant Cayton…I think he's on the mainland, today."

"Well, you've got one hour. Grab someone to fill in for Cayton, and we'll meet in the gate room in an hour."

Standing up straight, Lorne replied, "Yes, sir." As he turned to leave, a thought occurred to him. "I'm guessing Captain Daher's team caught the Pegasus flu?"

Weir frowned darkly at Sheppard making Lorne's eyebrows go up in surprise. It must have been only recently she'd caught on to the joke. Sheppard patently ignored the look and explained, "They were attacked by some sort of squirrel-like creature yesterday on what we thought was a milk run. Beckett says they'll be fine, but wants to keep them under observation for a couple of days in case of infection or disease."

"Understood, sir."

Once his back was turned, Major Lorne couldn't help the grin. It had been the Cursed Colonel, as he sometimes thought of his CO, which had started the joke in the first place. Somewhere along the way Sheppard had made a wise-crack to Beckett when his infirmary was rather full of minor injuries at that they should start calling his demand for extended observation the "Pegasus Flu". Beckett had not exactly taken offense to this, but didn't really see the humor in it, either. Then again, Lorne had come to know that the doctor pretty much shared the Major's opinion of the Colonel's very strange luck. It seemed like almost every time he deemed mission, a day, anything as "easy" it would turn out anything but. Then again, he had the kind of luck that kept him and his team alive time and time again when it seemed impossible; so it all sort of balanced out, for him and his team, anyway.

~o~o~o~

An hour later Teyla, McKay, Sheppard, Ronon, Lorne, Shingleton, Keane, and Doctor January watched as the event horizon formed. The briefing had been quick and relatively painless, considering McKay had been present. According to an earlier recon team, M5Y-192 had some interesting ruins and an unknown energy source. After the initial survey a few weeks ago, plans had been laid to investigate more closely. Of course, if it involved an energy reading of any significance, it just had to be the great Doctor Rodney McKay investigating it; because no one else was good enough. Nonetheless, Major Lorne had opted to bring another physicist just to tweak the man. In addition, he already had his own team's Lieutenant Shingleton, who specialized in archeology.

As the event horizon settled into its usual watery surface, Major Lorne figured there were worse ways to spend what should have been a day off. Maybe if he was tagging along with Sheppard's team it really would be a quick in and out mission. Following along behind the rest of them, Lorne refocused his attention on his new surroundings.

Walking up behind the others, Major Lorne always felt that initial tension of expecting literally anything when first stepping through the gate. But, after a few seconds, when nothing threatening happened, he and the others began to relax. Following the instructions given by McKay relayed from his magical, all-knowing tablet, they headed down the path away from the gate. That's when Lorne began to feel the tension again.

At first all he saw was the path, and dense forest all around with massive trees. It appeared to be early afternoon and plenty of animal activity. It was utterly normal, calm, and even tranquil. But the tension in his gut and twitching between his shoulder blades screamed alarms. That's when it struck him. This was a path. On a planet that had been abandoned possibly millennia ago, there shouldn't be a well-worn path. Major Lorne was no woodsman, but he couldn't ignore his gut feeling; the same feeling that had saved his life on more than one occasion.

Signaling to Lieutenant Keane to watch their rear, he jogged up to the front of the group where McKay and Sheppard were arguing quietly over something on the tablet. By the sound of how quiet they were being, they had sub consciously picked up on whatever was wrong here, too.

"Colonel, we need to head back," Lorne whispered.

"Yeah, I know. This path is too new, too…"

"Yes, sir."

"But I'm telling you, it's just the energy signature. It's probably making you paranoid," Rodney said, irritation clear in his voice.

Sheppard considered this, but tossed it out quickly with a shake of his head. "No. We're—"

That's when the first shots rang out from the direction they had been headed. Now they knew what was so wrong. They were not alone. Grabbing McKay, Sheppard jumped over a fallen tree for cover. Reflexively shooting in the general direction of the shots, Lorne hesitated just long enough to ensure the rest of the group managed to take cover on either side of the path before following after Sheppard. Certain now they were dealing with the Genii, they knelt behind the tree trying to take aim on the shooters.

Kneeling to Colonel Sheppard's left with McKay on Sheppard's right, Major Lorne silently cursed the green uniforms. Their attackers were practically invisible in the forest. Worse, they were actually within sight of the gate and no one was close enough to dial for backup. Lorne listened as Sheppard got location reports from the others. Ronon and Keane were both approximately twenty meters from the DHD. Despite the seriousness of their situation, Sheppard flashed Lorne a grin.

"Loser brings the beer?"

Lorne laughed. "You're on."

"Ronon, Keane, see if one of you can make your way to the DHD. Loser team buys the beer."

For a few minutes it was just back and forth firing, each side trying to take out the other. But, knowing Ronon and Keane were slowly making their way to the DHD to radio for backup, it was just a matter of holding their own, for now. They had no idea how many were out there, or if the Genii already had reinforcements coming. All they could do realistically was try not to use up all their ammo before help arrived.

His P90 clip empty, Lorne turned around calling out his reload, and putting his back to the log. Catching sight of movement, he glanced up just in time to see a Genii solder drawing a bead on Sheppard's back from less than fifteen feet away. His gun empty, the Major reacted reflexively. Dropping his P90, he threw himself at the Colonel, shoving him sideways into McKay. This caused Sheppard to spin around nearly putting half a dozen bullets into Lorne; or so he thought. Still not quite comprehending what was happening, he reflexively sent his last few bullets from his current clip into the Genii soldier dropping him on the spot.

A heartbeat later Colonel Sheppard's mind caught up to what had just happened. Major Lorne was laid out across his lap. Dropping his P90 he reached for Lorne's neck, already knowing what he was going to find. Before he could do so, though, the Major groaned and reached across his chest with his left arm. Releasing the breath he'd unconsciously been holding in fear of what he would find, Sheppard tried to still his trembling hands.

"Where're you hit?" Sheppard asked, his training and experience kicking in.

"Under the right arm," Major Lorne grated out through clenched teeth, "chest cavity."

Already Lorne was trying to push himself up only to realize he couldn't. Somewhere between the shock of the gunshot wound and realizing he was somehow still alive, he missed the fact that he couldn't feel anything below his shoulder blades now.

"What is it?" Sheppard asked, helping the Major move upright by supporting his shoulders.

The terror was clear in Lorne's wide blue eyes, but the expression on his deathly pale face betrayed none of it. "I can't feel anything below the shoulders, sir. Lean me back, and I'll watch our six."

Hefting him by the vest, Sheppard did just that. Reaching for his P90, Lorne began to reload. Though his hands shook slightly, his expression had turned hard. Sheppard patted him on the shoulder.

"Hang in there, Major. We'll get you back to Beckett and he'll have you patched up in no time."

"Yes, sir," Lorne replied, his expression still hard.

Turning back to the fight on their hands, he caught McKay's pale-face look. He'd seen the whole thing, but had been busy covering them. Sheppard just gave him a frown that indicated the scientist needed to keep his focus. Not two minutes later Colonel Sheppard heard the most beautiful sound ever. As the gate activated he keyed on his radio. In seconds he'd relayed their situation and was confident they'd be out of there soon. Turning back to his SiC he struggled to put on a confident grin as he took in the sight of Lorne coughing as he struggled to breathe. Already blood stained the Major's lips.

"See, Major? We'll be out of here in no time."

Coughing fit over, Lorne gasped a few times trying to focus. "Just worry about getting our teams home, Colonel."

"Yes, sir," Sheppard shot back sarcastically with a smirk. The lack of response from Lorne was downright unnerving.

For a while Sheppard had his hands full just trying to keep back the encroaching Genii. Obviously there had been more than he'd estimated originally. Either that, or they had a base somewhere nearby where they were getting reinforcements. Either way, it was looking less and less like they were going to get out of there in the next few minutes.

When the gate finally lit up again and more heavily armed Marines and Airmen came pouring through the gate, Colonel Sheppard couldn't help the relieved smile. He would have Lorne out of here and into Beckett's tender care shortly. Turning to the Major beside him, he very nearly dropped his P90. The man was clearly struggling to breathe, to even just stay upright. From somewhere he had produced a rag that was now soaked in blood that he had coughed up.

"Just hang in there, Lorne. Help is here. We're almost out of here."

Struggling to focus as he picked up his P90 again, and still trying to make himself useful watching their backs, Lorne kept his eyes out deliberately away from his CO; but Sheppard could see the mingled determination and terror still in those blue eyes. "Sheppard…envelope…bedside table…" Whatever else he was about to say was cut off with another coughing fit. He very nearly doubled over.

Dropping his P90, Sheppard reached over to support him before he fell over. "That's it, Lorne. Just breathe. Just focus on breathing. We're almost out of here."

Leaning back against the tree again, Lorne nodded slightly doing just that. After a moment, certain he wasn't going to fall over, Sheppard started to back off going for his P90. That's when Lorne's eyes opened again, boring into him. He must have seen something of Sheppard's own terror in there, though, because his determined expression softened.

"It's okay, John. Just tell my sister…"

"Tell her yourself, Evan, 'cause we're getting you out of here!" he cut in when Lorne stopped to cough again.

With a sardonic grin, Lorn replied, "Yes, sir," with as much energy as he could muster; which was something just above a whisper.

A split second later the Colonel's attention was drawn away as a grenade went off a lot closer than he would have liked. Turning his attention back to the fight and the radio chatter that gave him positions and updates, he keyed on his own mic.

"Ronon, I've got a man down. I need you over here. We're going to need to make a run for the gate."

He never even heard Ronon's affirmative reply as he glanced back to Lorne. Sheppard felt his blood freeze in his veins as a spike of fear that ran through him when he realized his friend and SiC was no longer breathing. Forcing the trembling in his hands to stop, he checked Lorne's neck. The fear turned to rage as he realized the man still had a heartbeat. And there was no way in hell he was going to let the Major die now; not when they were this close to help.

"You're not doing this to me, Evan," he growled, unzipping the Major's tac vest and throwing it aside. He laid the man out and began chest compressions as all else faded to background noise. "Damn it, Evan! Breathe, damn it! Son of a bitch, you're not doing this to me!"

Sheppard couldn't remember the last time he was this thoroughly pissed off. But he knew if he let it go for even a split second, the terror that had gripped his heart threatening to stop it earlier would take over. He lost track of time as he alternated between breathing and compressions. His vision had narrowed to this one thing. Over and over he just kept going. It wasn't until Ronon leaned over and scooped up the Major that Sheppard finally came back to his surroundings. Picking up his P90 and shouting to McKay they followed Ronon to the gate in a mad dash.

Sheppard watched as Ronon ran to the side where Beckett waited with a team. He dropped Lorne on the gurney and backed off. Still in something of a state of shock, Sheppard watched Beckett cutting off Lorne's shirt; only barely registering the fact that the rest of the teams were coming through the gate, now. He didn't even realize he had his fists clenched as he watched Beckett and the rest of the team working. He only caught bits and pieces of what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good.

"…v-fib…crash cart…clear!"

Now the rage was gone. There was just the terror as his vision again focused on that one point. Not even realizing it, the Colonel's expression mirrored Beckett's fiercely determined one. He continued to watch, all of them did, as Beckett struggled to bring back the Major. Time slowed to a crawl. While one part of his brain was counting the people coming through the gate, the other part was too focused on Lorne to take stock of their conditions. Right now, all that mattered was the dead man lying on that gurney. Sheppard didn't even realize he was holding his breath until the gate shut down, shocking him back to his surroundings.

Turning around, he noted that everyone was accounted for. A few flesh wounds appeared to be the rest of it. He watched Beckett's other personnel swarming around the wounded. By the time he turned back around, Beckett and his team were nearly out of sight down the hall, someone still doing chest compressions as Lorne had yet to breathe again.